method of transfer: the others are transferred by mosquitos, but Hep C is blood borne

How HCV functions is also different from other flaviviruses. How?

Flaviviruses don't acquire mutations often because they have to be able to infect our own cells and infect cells at the same time; so, there is a lot of selective pressure to maintain the same epitopes and the same general structure of the proteins

Hep C has none of this pressure; they mutate very quickly; it has also hampered our ability to study the virus

Why is HCV hard to study?

it does not grow in any conditions in the lab. You need samples from people with it.

there have been attempts to adapt the virus to the culture. When scientists try to do this with Hep C, by the time they it into the lab, it has acquired so many mutations that its barely worth studying

HCV also has a __. And, it does not __.

low number of circulating virions

integrate into host genome

Pathology of the HCV?

acute hepatitis C:

- generally benign with 80% getting no jaundice and it being a generally asymptomatic primary infection